Selected Works & Awards

2014

Salto Biennial, Representative of Argentina, Uruguay

2013

Biennial of Medellín, Representative of Argentina, Colombia

2012

Mercosur Biennial, Representative of Argentina, Brazil

1997

Havana Biennial, Representative of Argentina, Cuba

Exhibition

The giant blackboard installed here was fabricated for the interactive project “Club del Dibujo” (Drawing Club) that Argentinian artist Claudia Del Río launched with friends in 2002, creating a space for communication and performance in which artists and other participants use chalk and water to go through a process of repeatedly drawing on the blackboard and then erasing what they drew. The space serves a variety of functions, including becoming a school, theater, or club depending on the topic or instructions at the time.

Drawing is a format accessible to anyone, regardless of age and gender, and without the need for sophisticated techniques or expensive tools. Del Río feels that it is the most direct way for people to express their thoughts to the outside world. Using ephemeral materials that soon disappear, such as water and chalk, allows people to express personal anxieties and even profound ideas through drawing.

Through her art, such as paintings, performances, and mail art, always poetic and full of humor, del Río encourages people to think about issues that everyone encounters in society. The projects that she runs and the networks that she constructs enable anyone to join in fertile communication through art, using techniques and methods such as drawing, embroidery, and collage that do not require a high level of art education. Since participating in the Havana Biennial in 1997, she has gained international acclaim as a leading Argentinian artist, and is invited to art festivals throughout the world.

• Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2022
• What do you do to stay alive?/Qué haces para seguir vivo, 2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio

Exhibition

The enormous clay–finished wall, measuring 24 meters long, is brilliantly decorated with a variety of masks, creatures such as spiders and fish, and trees and flowers. It’s almost as if the mélange of characters that are close by as we lead our lives–the animals and gods, the masks we wear and the personalities we play that relieve fear and loneliness-are passing the time here, filling the gaps in our hearts from the corners of our rooms and from above our beds. Time flows through this mural in a miraculously joyful way.

Clay is a material that has been familiar to Del Río since childhood. It is not just the hands, but the entire body, that responds to the material as if in thought. Each contact is replicated as a trace, and these motions gradually accumulate in the material.

Her work–her paintings, performances, and mail art–is always poetic and full of humor, and through it del Río encourages us to think about problems that we all encounter as members of society. Del Río has developed networks and created projects that allow everyone to participate in the rich form of communication that is art by using techniques and methods such as drawing, embroidery, and collage that do not require a high level of art education. Since participating in the Havana Biennial in 1997, she has become internationally recognized as a leading Argentinian artist, and she is invited to art festivals throughout the world.

• Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2022
• Candour, anxiety and the intimate story/Candor, ansiedad y el cuento interno, 2022 [detail]
• Photo: ToLoLo studio